


Christmas Angel

by WolfRampant



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas, Gabriel is Scrooge, Gen, Inspired by A Christmas Carol, Pre-Armageddon, Singing, Song Lyrics, Very brief passing mention of rape, carols
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21804655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfRampant/pseuds/WolfRampant
Summary: It's Christmas, the time for joy and celebration. But there is one angel who has no interest in celebrating some silly human holiday at all, thank you very much.Gabriel just wishes for everybody to leave him alone and do their damn jobs. The higher powers have other plans.(or A Christmas Carol with Gabriel as Scrooge)
Relationships: background Aziraphale/Crowley - Relationship, hinted Beelzebub/Gabriel (Good Omens)
Comments: 38
Kudos: 39





	1. Chapter 1

_Angels, from the realms of glory,_

_Wing your flight o'er all the earth;_

_Ye who sang creation's story,_

_Now proclaim Messiah's birth:_

_Come and worship, come and worship_

_Worship Christ, the newborn King._

Gabriel growled and threw his pen on the desk with more force than was necessary. It bounced off and rolled under the filing cabinet. It was the third time that day his work was interrupted by the incessant singing.

Gabriel was one hundred pages into a very important report composed by the Department of Human Salvation about the effects the divine miracles had on human willingness to donate to charitable causes during the Holiday season. So far it wasn’t looking good for the humans, thought Gabriel with some satisfaction, but there were twice as many pages yet to be read and maybe they will surprise him. The report was full of numbers, complicated graphs and big words and he really needed to focus.

With disgust, Gabriel stormed out of his office and into the common area where the subordinate angels usually slaved over their reports and dispatches. Usually was the critical word, for most of their desks were empty. Only Ophaniel still sat in his place bend over his screen and typing furiously.

_Maria durch ein Dornwald ging,_

_Kyrie eleison._

_Maria durch ein Dornwald ging,_

_der hat in sieben Jahrn kein Laub getragen._

_Jesus und Maria._

_Was trug Maria unter ihrem Herzen?_

_Kyrie eleison._

_Ein kleines Kindlein ohne Schmerzen,_

_das trug Maria unter ihrem Herzen._

_Jesus und Maria._

Letting the sound of music guide him, Gabriel arrived at the empty area where his missing workers gathered in loosely shaped crescent. They sang, he noted with displeasure, slightly out of sync with each other. And was that…? Sandalphon seemed to be the one leading them.

“What’s going here?!” 

The singing stopped abruptly and the angels started turning hastily, some of them bumping into each other. Gabriel resisted the urge to roll his eyes. If he was a demon, the lot of them would be food for Imps by now.

Sandalphon made his way to the front and gave him his typical golden smile.

“We are practicing for the Christmas singing competition. I think it’s coming along swimmingly.”

“What competition?!” Gabriel didn’t remember approving something like that. Mainly because he wouldn’t have approved it.

“Each department creates its own choir and sings three Christmas carols. The Metatron and Jesus are judges. Surely you have gotten a memo about it?”

“No.”

“Well, you are welcome to join us. You have a lovely voice, Gabriel, it would be really a boon to us ” the other angels nodded and murmured in agreement. Was it what they truly cared about, winning some silly competition?

“No, I won’t be joining you. And you won’t sing either. You haven’t got my permission to leave work, of which there will be plenty, let me assure you.”

“But it’s Christmas!” protested one of the younger angels, Jamiel.

“Bah, Christmas! Were the Hordes of Hell defeated while I wasn’t looking? Is Satan chained over the Lake of Fire as we speak? Did good triumph over evil?”

“No.” murmured the angels, eyes downcast.

“Then we don’t have time for frivolities like Christmas! Go back to work and do something actually useful. And stop the annoying singing!”

Sullen angels dispersed and Gabriel nodded himself. Singing competition indeed. He will see about having the whole thing cancelled.

……………………..

In blissful silence, Gabriel had finally only ten pages to go. So focused he was on his work that he screamed and fell off his chair when there was a polite cough across from him. Gathering himself up and peeking over his desk, he saw Uriel calmly sitting in his visitor chair.

“Uriel! I haven’t seen you there!” he righted his chair hurriedly and sat straight in it, a perfect image of an unflappable and immaculate archangel.

“Clearly not,” muttered Uriel.

“How long have you been sitting here?”

“A while.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“You seemed busy. I didn’t want to disturb you from your so very important work. I know how much you value silence, dear brother.” Gabriel frowned. He could swear that Uriel was mocking him.

“Well, since I am busy why don’t you tell me what you need?” _and then leave._ That was a problem with having siblings who were all theoretically equal to you. You just couldn’t order them around.

“Is it true that you forbade your department from participating in the inter-department singing competition?”

“Yes.”

“Gabriel, do you know how bad it looks, the archangel forbidding the Angels of the Lord from singing?!”

“I don’t care how it looks. It’s a waste of time and resources. Who came up with this bullshit anyway?”

“That would be our Mother, the Lord Almighty,” replied Uriel dryly.

Bugger. There went Gabriel’s plan to get rid of the thing altogether.

“Well, I want no part in it.”

“That’s a pity. I and Michael were considering creating our own choir just with the archangels, to lead by example as it is. We would very much like to join us. We could spend some time together. We hardly ever see each other outside of work and we miss it.”

“I think I’ll pass, thank you.”

“Gabriel,” said Uriel slowly. “There is nothing wrong with letting loose once in a while and relax. Why not at Christmas?”

“There will be plenty of times to relax once the Armageddon is over, Heaven is victorious and the demons are where they belong.”

Uriel sighed. “We are worried about you, Gabriel. You are too obsessed with this Armageddon thing. You work too much and it makes you irritable.”

Gabriel gritted his teeth and pointed to the door. “If you have nothing productive to discuss with me, archangel Uriel, then I suggest you leave me to my work and leave.”

“Fine. I told Michael this is how it will go.” Uriel stood up and walked to the door, but turned in the last moment. “Frankly, you have been a prick lately, Gabriel. When you are wondering in a few years why no-one likes you, think back to this conversation, will you?”

…….

_...Jingle bells, jingle bells,_

_Jingle all the way._

_Oh! what fun it is to ride_

_In a one-horse open sleigh._

_Jingle bells, jingle bells,_

_Jingle all the way;_

_Oh! what fun it is to ride_

_In a one-horse open sleigh._

Gabriel groaned in despair as he arrived on Earth and his hearing was assaulted by the most annoying Christmas song the humanity ever created. He rushed through the streets of Soho wishing he could close his ears and eyes both.

If Heaven was excited about Christmas, the humans were mad about it. Every free spot was hanging with blinding and blinking lights, the windows were filled with tacky decorations and horrible pop music came out from every shop. Gabriel swore that Mariah Carey will go straight to Hell.

He had hoped that at least Aziraphale would have enough sense to stay out of that Christmas nonsense. As the angel who was in the frontlines all the time, he must know there was no time to celebrate some silly human holiday. Demons didn’t sleep and neither could angels.

But no, even Aziraphale’s dwelling was decorated with cheerful garlands, a wreath on the door and a truly horrendous angel in the window. It had rainbow wings, for Heaven’s sake. Gabriel didn’t know, luckily, any angel with such an unfortunate and painful to look at colour pattern.

The door was locked but Gabriel let himself in. He was assaulted by the smell of cinnamon and pine and the sound of music - Christmas again! 

He walked to the backroom. Aziraphale was in his grand armchair, a cup of tea in his hand and he was engrossed in a book. When he noticed Gabriel, he jumped out of his seat and sloshed some of his beverage on his reindeer patterned sweater.

“Gabriel! What a pleasant surprise! Merry Christmas!” he miracled his sweater clean and dry and Gabriel frowned. Another frivolous miracle on the record.

“Hmmm.”

Aziraphale’s smile grew more fixed. “What do I owe this surprise visit?”

“Work. Your Christmas plans.”

“Oh, I plan to pop over for Germany for a Christmas market. I promised to go caroling with the local LGBT group. And Mrs. Sutcliffe invited me for Christmas dinner again. Her cooking is simply divine.”

“Not your plans!” Gabriel said impatiently and handed the Principality a folded paper. “You have tasks to complete before Christmas.”

Aziraphale took the paper gingerly and unfolded it. Then he unfolded it again. Then again. And again. By the time he saw the whole list his eyes were ready to pop out.

“This is…”

“The list of miracles you are to perform before Christmas Day. Once you are done with these,” Gabriel handed Aziraphale the second envelope, “you will go to orthodox countries and repeat it there until they have their Christmas.”

“There wasn’t that much work for me in previous years,” complained Aziraphale.

“Well, it’s a new strategy we are trying, to inspire the human to do more good. Personally I don’t think it’ll work but here you have it.”

Aziraphale looked pale. “But I don’t think I will manage to do all this in time. I won’t even be able to…” he swallowed his protests under Gabriel’s hard gaze.

“I see you got used to slacking off without supervision. Obviously I will have to keep a closer eye on you in the future. Now get to work. If you start right now, you might finish it by Christmas Eve and have an evening to spend the pointless human celebration as you wish, huh?” he patted the angels on the shoulder insincerely.

Aziraphale nodded miserably.

“Now, tell me what is this?” Gabriel pointed to a little pine in the corner decorated with gold and red baubles and glowing with soft lights.

“It’s a Christmas tree. It’s a human tradition. They decorate it and…”

“I know what is it!” interrupted Gabriel. “What is it doing here?”

Aziraphale wrung his hands nervously. “Sorry?”

“It’s a pagan tradition! You are an angel. Get rid of it.”

“Of course.” said the angel softly. “I will do as you order.”

Gabriel patted in on the arm for the last time and left with the satisfaction that at least one angel will be doing his proper job on Christmas.

…..

_Chtíc, aby spal, tak zpívala, synáčkovi,_

_matka, jež ponocovala, miláčkovi:_

_Spi, nebes dítě milostné, pán si a Bůh_

_přejeti v lásce celý ráj pozemský lůh_

_Dřímej,to matky žádost je,holubičko_

_v tobě se duše raduje, ó, perličko!_

_Nebesa chválu pějí tvou, slávu a čest,_

_velebí tebe každý tvor, tisíce hvězd._

“Not again.”

Gabriel got up from his chair and opened his office door with more force than strictly necessary. He was really going to make the angels wish they were never created. 

Just out of the door he bumped into a small, olive-skinned young woman with big chocolate eyes.

“Mary?! What are you doing here?”

“This is an intervention,” said Mary flatly. She moved and backed him down to his office.

“Intervention? For what?” but Gabriel had an unpleasant feeling that he knew what it was about. Was the entire Heaven conspiring against him?

“You are refusing to celebrate my son’s birthday.”

“Your son’s birthday? It’s not even his birthday! He was born in September!”

“It’s the spirit of the thing. We celebrate his birthday with the rest of the world when it brings everybody joy.”

“Spirit of the thing? Have you looked at Earth lately? It serves only for humans to show off who has more money and stuff their mouths with enough food they could live on it for a year. They make a mockery out of a holy day. Why don’t you intervene against that?!”

“I think you are wrong. There still enough kindness and piety to go around. You just have to see.”

“I only saw gaudy decorations that don’t glorify God in the slightest.”

Mary sighed. “Gabriel, you are a dear friend to me. I hate to see you grumpy and unhappy like this, spreading bad mood across Heaven. Christmas is time for happiness and joy, time to be together. Let me show you that. We have dinner on Christmas day. Even other archangels are coming. You’ll see what Christmas is really about.”

Gabriel snorted. “I don’t eat and I have too much work.”

“Now you are just inventing excuses. I remember you eating plenty of dates back in the day.”

“Fine, I’ll be honest. I don’t have any interest whatsoever to celebrate Christmas. It’s nonsense invented by humans to sell more useless stuff. I’ll be glad once this is over.”

“Fine. But I hope you will change your mind. You are always welcome at our table. You are _the_ Christmas angel and always will be.”

After Mary left Gabriel picked up his phone. Surely there is somewhere he could escape this madness.

“... _all I want for Christmas is you!”_ screeched the falsetto voice from the receiver.

“Beelzebub, what the fuck?!”

“Hey, it swears! What do you want, Gabe?”

Gabriel rolled his eyes at the infantile nickname. After thousands of years, he didn’t bother to correct the Prince of Hell. It would achieve nothing. “Beelz, what are you doing for Christmas?”

“You want a meeting for Christmas? I thought your lot is busy during the holidays.”

“I think I have an open window.” 

“Sorry, can’t do. We have a party going down here. Lucifer is hosting.”

“But you have no reason to even celebrate Christmas!” Gabriel was disappointed, to say the least. He hoped that the Hell at least wouldn’t care about it and Beelzebub would agree to spend time with him and bitch about it.

“We’ll take any excuse to party. There is going to be dancing and a lot of food. Humans are really donating to homeless shelters this year. And we have already decorated a Christmas tree. It’s huge! If you have nothing to do, why don’t you join us? Lucifer will be happy to have you! We haven’t got an archangel here for a party since Raphael got drunk with Asmodeus.”

Disgusted, Gabriel hanged up. It seemed that nowhere was safe. Still hearing the singing from the distance, he gathered some files and popped to his quarters, miracling them sound-proof. Settling himself for an evening with paperwork he drew back shock when he noticed the figure in the corner.

Lucifer was supposed to be in Hell, to begin with.


	2. Chapter 2

Gabriel raised his hand to summon his celestial sword from the ether. He flexed his fingers. Nothing happened, no comforting warm weight landed in his palm, no divine light illuminated the darkened room. He tried again, with the same result. 

He looked back at Lucifer who watched him with crossed arms and amused smile on his ruined face. 

With his blade unavailable, Gabriel snapped his finger to miracle another weapon but his miracle felt like swimming through jelly and once again he was left empty handed. He desperately looked around for anything he could use as a weapon, but his quarters were bare. What a time to wish he had any worthless trinkets around. He settled on the plain, yet elegant chair, taking it by the legs and throwing it at Lucifer. It went right through him and Gabriel was left gaping at him. Was he just a projection? Or Heaven forbid, just a figment of Gabriel’s imagination?

“Are you quite done with that?” said Lucifer annoyed.

“You are not really here. You are just a hallucination.”

Lucifer rolled his eyes. “You don’t have enough imagination to dream this up. I am really here.”

Gabriel clenched his fists. He will fight Lucifer bare-handed if needed.

“How did you get here then?”

“Would you believe that I was sent here to help you?”

Gabriel snorted at that. “Sent by whom?”

Lucifer’s bloodshot eyes flicked up. Gabriel seethed. “No, that I won’t believe not even in million years.”

“Believe what you want, little brother. I am here to help you.”

Ah, Lucifer was delusional. That was actually not something new. Gabriel eyed the door. Keep him talking long enough to get out and summon help. Because devil himself arriving to Heaven was a very bad news. They were lucky he decided to stop for this little chat and not to wreak havoc already.

“Help me with what? I am quite right, I don’t need any help.” Gabriel inched towards the exit.

“Oh, but you do, Bluebird. You are quite lucky I was allowed to come and warn you. I was given no such courtesy.”

“Warn me from what?”

“From becoming like me.”

“Well, that’s alright then, your work here's done. I am in no danger of falling or becoming like you in any way.” another small step to the exit.

Lucifer laughed softly. “On the contrary, you are very close to that. But you have still a chance to avoid that fate if you will heed this warning.”

Gabriel scoffed. “And why should I listen to anything you say? You are famous for your lies.”

“I won’t be saying anything, I am here only as an introduction act. During the night you will be visited by three very special angels. The Angel of Christmas Past, the Angel of Christmas Present and the Angels of the Christmas Yet to Come.”

“There aren’t angels like this in all of Heaven. I would know.”

“You don’t know everything, Gabriel. In fact you know very little. I advise you to listen to them very carefully if you want to avoid my fate. That handsome face ruined, your wings burned, you really don’t want that. And trust me, you wouldn’t make a very good demon.” 

Finally Gabriel was in the reach of the door. He covered the remaining distance in a leap and leaned to the door. It wouldn’t budge. Impossible! Door in Heaven didn’t even close properly. He pushed again and started banging on it.

“It won’t help you.”

Gabriel turned and pressed his back to the door. Lucifer now came uncomfortably close and he smiled so widely that Gabriel could see his rotten teeth.

“Let me out.”

Lucifer shook his head.

“Remember what I’ll tell you. Three angels, three visits in the night. The first angel will be here as the First Celestial Choir sings its praises. Your last chance.”

With that Lucifer disappeared, the door slid open and Gabriel stumbled into the corridor to the surprise of the passing angel. Gabriel gave him quick reassuring smile, straightened his clothes and stuck his head back into his room. There was no sign of Lucifer as he was never there.

Gabriel shook his head to clear it. He probably wasn’t. It must all have been a strange hallucination. There was no way for Lucifer to sneak into Heaven undetected. What a laughable idea. Maybe Uriel was right and he was overworked. He decided to get a brief moment of rest.

…….

Later, Gabriel was sitting on his stylish yet not that comfortable sofa, sifting through his paperwork listlessly when he heard more singing. Luckily no more Christmas songs. It was the First Choir singing its praises.

A bright light erupted in the centre of the room and Gabriel raised his hand to shield his eyes. When the light dimmed and his eyes adjusted there was a chubby figure, bright white wings spread wide. Gabriel recognized the figure and jumped on his feet. This particular angel should be busy with spreading miracles among the humans, not be here, participating in whatever prank this was.

“Aziraphale?!”

The angel smiled good-naturedly. “Not quite.”


	3. Chapter 3

Gabriel blinked.

“You aren’t Aziraphale?” He certainly looked like Aziraphale, from the mop of platinum blonde hair down to his well-cared for leather shoes. He behaved like Aziraphale too, with his thumbs hooked behind his lapels and sunny smile on his face.

“I am the Angel of the Christmas Past. I only took this form because it is familiar to you.”

“And I guess you are here to give me more warnings about the dire future waiting for me if I don’t repent from the sins you imagine I committed.” scoffed Gabriel.

“Future. No, no. I am here to to show you the past. I am the Angel of the Christmas Past after all.”

“How is that going to help me?!” sneered Gabriel. He was absolutely certain that he needed no help and this was some bizzare vision.

“Well, It’s always nice to put things in perspective, to see where we went wrong.” 

“I went nowhere wrong,” Gabriel assured him. “So you can save yourself time and go.”

“We’ll see.” Aziraphale who claimed not to be really Aziraphale offered him his hand. “Let’s go.”

Gabriel twitched his finger but his miracles were unavailable once again. So with a scowl, hoping that this unusual vision will be over quickly, he grabbed the impostor’s hand none too gently. In a flesh his quarters dissolved around him and he was falling through the thick fog. Instinctively he spread his wings and turned his fall into a glide. He could only see Aziraphale as the light disappearing in the fog so he beat his long powerful wings a few times and he quickly caught up to him. After several moments the clouds tore up and Gabriel could see earth and the small town beneath him. He and Aziraphale headed to it and landed on the edge of the city.

Gabriel prided himself on his excellent memory, sharpened during the time he had to deliver messages orally. He recognized the ancient Bethlehem at once, the bright star that shone even during the day included.

He could sense where the wind was blowing so he set into the streets without Aziraphale’s prompting, eventually arriving to an old stable partially cut into the rock. The smell of manure mixed with that of cinnamon and mint. For otherwise unremarkable stable it was full of people, peeking curiously into a manger, all keeping their voices low not to disturb the newborn messiah.

Gabriel ignored all the humans instead focusing on a stranger lurking in the corner, behind some hay. He was a stranger in every sense of the word. In his luxurious white robes lavishly complemented by purple, he looked out of place. He was lithe, you could almost say petite with beautiful delicate features made out of marble, golden curls spread in a halo around his head and striking purple eyes and at the first glance you could tell it wasn’t just another human but someone touched by divine powers.

“Ah, your old corporation! I missed it,” said Aziraphale at his shoulder.

Gabriel ignored the pang the exclamation caused deep inside his chest. He liked his current body for its strength and sheer presence, but he had to admit he missed his previous body as well. Seeing it was like meeting your best friend after decades, after you resigned yourself to never seeing them again. 

After a while the well-wishers filled out, leaving only the exhausted parents, squirming baby Jesus, Gabriel-that-was and two silent observers.

“You can come closer, angel,” said Mary from her improvised bed. Despited tired lines on her face, she didn’t need a halo to seem to be glowing. “We don’t bite.”

Reluctantly, the past Gabriel moved from his post and stopped to gaze down on a babe in the manger. Little Jesus gave him unfocused baby stare in return.

“Do you want to hold him?”

“I wouldn’t know how,” replied Gabriel reluctantly.

“I'll show you.”

So under Mary’s careful and patient guidance, the Son of God settled in the arms of the Archangel. Gabriel’s small mouth turned down in a slight frown as he looked down on the baby. It was hard to guess what he was thinking but Gabriel knew. He remembered. He was partly in awe that the fulfilling of the Almighty’s great plan resulted in this little bundle, delighted that he was allowed to play a small part in it and partly aware of the heavy burden placed on the small shoulders.

When Jesus started to fuss he looked up to Mary hopefully, but the young mother was asleep. He looked frantically around the now empty stable. Joseph was nowhere to be found. He rocked the baby and the tiny boy only started whimpering more.

He hummed to him and Jesus seemed to quieten a little. Gabriel started to sing softly, the song older than the creation.

Few feets away Aziraphale sighed happily and Gabriel rolled his eyes over the exhibition of the sentimentality.

“See the way you were back then. You were an image of the angelic kindness.”

“Clearly I was a naive fool back then. There was better way I could have spent my time.”

“Surely you don’t mean that. You were so proud of this moment for the longest time.”

“Proud of what? So much work and effort for a boy who ended up nailed to a cross. And nothing changed. Tell me, are the humans any less sinful, any less greedy, wrathful? What is there even worth celebrating?”

“You choose to see only the negative side of humanity.”

“Well, it’s hard to see any positive side.” 

Aziraphale shook his head sadly. “You have grown bitter, Gabriel. It seems you have lost any joy in the little things along the way.”

“On the contrary, I have grown wiser.”

“We have our work cut out for us, I see.” the fog started to creep back around them and the Gabriel of the past and his voice started to disappear.

Gabriel and Aziraphale flew only a short time before landing on familiar ramparts of Heaven and made their way inside. Heaven looked almost the same, only the fashion indicated that they were still in the past. Gone were the finely cut and tailored suits, back were the white tunics and flowing robes.

Gabriel spotted himself and cringed at the sight of his past self stumbling around on unfamiliarly long legs and in the body of a bear. Gabriel tried to forget these times when he finally convinced the other Archangels to assign him a new corporation, only to discover that after thousands of years in one body, a transition to another one wasn’t as smooth as he expected. It took him an embarrassingly long time to stop moving as if he imbibed the human beverages that made him drunk.

They followed the past Gabriel making his way through Heaven, apologizing constantly as he kept running into the other angels and crashing into pieces of furniture. They finally arrived at a grand hall where the Archangel held their meetings. His siblings were in one cluster, laughing and sharing something between themselves he couldn’t clearly see.

“What’s going on?

“Ah, Gabriel, just in time. We were just discussing a new holiday humans are celebrating to honor Jesus’ birth. It’s going to be called Christmas,” Raphael greeted him.

Gabriel frowned. As far as he could remember Jesus’ birthday was a few months ago. He was at the party. Surely the whole year didn’t pass.

“How?”

“Oh, it really quite genius. There a lot of religious holidays and festivals this time of a year. Something about the solstice makes humans think it’s special. Anyway, Christianity is going to be celebrating now too. Taking over your old believers. So people don’t miss their holidays. We are going to incorporating some of the aspects of the old holidays to help the transition.” Zadkiel seemed very pleased.

“I have seen some of these pagan rituals. They seem more about eating and drinking than worship.”

“I am sure feasting is there somewhere. But mostly it’s going to be about people spending time together, finding kindness and charity, setting their differences aside once a year,” added Raziel. “Something we definitely support.”

“It’s naive to think that it will make humans any better.” 

Raphael smiled indulgently. “We’ll see.”

Gabriel shrugged. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter. “Let humans do their pointless stuff. It isn't like it needs to bother us.” 

“On the contrary, we’ll be participating as well,” said Michael. “It has already been approved.”

“What?”

“It’s a holiday honouring our Lord’s only Son. It seems appropriate,” said Uriel.

“But we have better things to do with our time!”

Raphael creased his forehead in confusion. “Things like what?”

“There is the Armageddon to prepare for.”

There was a collective groan from the other Archangels. Gabriel frowned. He thought that they were all lucky St John had given them an early warning and others weren’t taking it seriously enough. Not even Michael whose whole job was fighting the forces of Hell.

“We can’t prepare for that all the time. We don’t even know when it’s supposed to happen. That’s in the hands of the opposition.” said Uriel reasonably. Other archangel nodded in her support. “You should learn to relax. Christmas is a perfect opportunity for that.”

“Here, look at it.” Zadkiel waved the paper with a song notation in his face. “There is singing involved too. It should be right up to our valley. We were just looking at the song humans composed just for the occasion. Come and sing it with us.”

Gabriel straightened his already impressive height. “Waste of time. Nothing compares to the celestial harmonies.”

“Come on, it’s going to be fun.” Raphael turned pleading eyes on him.

“Sing with us, brother. After all, nothing will help us more in a fight than being coordinated.” Michael joined Raphael’s pleading.

“After all, Christmas is time for a family,” said Zadkiel.

Reluctantly, Gabriel let himself be pulled in and they set out to singing the Latin hymn.

_Jesus refulsit omnium_

_Pius redemptor gentium_

_Totum genus fidelium_

_Laudes celebrity dramatum_

_Quem stella natum fulgida_

_Monstrat micans per authera_

_Magosque duxit praevia_

_Ipsius ad cunabula_

_Illi cadentes parvulum_

_Pannis adorant obsitum_

_Verum fatentur ut Deum_

_Munus ferendo mysticum_.

By the time the singing ended, there was a soft smile on Gabriel´s face as Raphael nudged him with a wink. 

“See, you enjoyed this Christmas at the end.” came Aziraphale’s voice at his shoulder. “Spending it with those you care about. You discovered that there are things about Christmas worth celebrating. And you can still have it back. Aren’t the Archangels singing together again for this year's Christmas?”

“Phhh, I was naive back then, letting them convince me there is some merit to Christmas. Time and experience proved otherwise.” insisted Gabriel. “I said so from the beginning.”

Aziraphale shook his head again with a sigh.”Come, we have more to see.”

They flew again to another small town and from the setting, Gabriel recognized that it was the time the European continent was gripped in the midst of one of its plentiful religious wars. Considering the dire situation of the humans, in these years Heaven sent out multiple agents to help out Aziraphale in distributing the Christmas miracles to the stricken population.

After the afternoon spent in this impoverished little town, letting the inhabitants find forgotten food in strange corners, he was thoroughly sick of it. He spent the afternoon watching the mercenaries who were forcefully quartered in the townsfolk's homes getting progressively drunker and drunker, eating out of people's larders and dragging maidens away to do things Gabriel tried not to think about.

The sun was almost setting when he noticed a small dark figure dashing along the street and disappearing around the corner. He sped up and thanks to his long strides he soon caught up.

“Beelzebub! What devil’s work are you doing here?”

“The devil’s work precisely,” replied Beelzebub. They sounded bored as if they weren’t just caught by the archangel. They didn’t even bother to stop walking and face him. “What are _you_ doing here anyway? Figured your lot will be up there, singing celebratory hymns.”

Gabriel grimaced, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the Prince of Hell. “Honestly, I would rather be doing that. But I have to be here doing miracles to make humans less miserable.”

“I am here making humans more miserable.” gloated Beelzebub. “Not that they need much of my help. They make each other miserable plenty.”

Gabriel started to nod, realized he was agreeing with the Prince of Hell and slightly jerked his head. “All that moaning about having poor Christmas, Humans caused all of this to themselves, arguing about trifles, about the Almighty’s Will. How can mortals even presume to know the will of the Creator?!” Puny little mortals thinking themselves something better when even Gabriel himself wasn’t sure he understood all the details of the Great Plan. He shoved this thought to the back of his head.

“Oh, yes.” Beelzebub smile showed their teeth. “What greedy little creatures. No redeeming qualities. They never help each other,” obliviously they passed a woman helping a beggar, “, or try to find comfort in anything they can find.” they passed a tavern from which came a drunken singing.

“Exactly. It’s all me, me, me! Christmas is just an excuse for them to get drunk,” he threw a disapproving glance at a soldier stumbling through the street. “And stuff their faces. How can they claim to follow God if the only thing they do is fighting, pillaging and raping in Her name? If you ask me, it will benefit them to forget all these trappings and get back on their knees and closer to God.”

“They are a waste of miracles really. You really should leave them to their fate. Look all that vanity, greed, gluttony, lust.” Beelzebub pointed gleefully on the passing humans. “Should really leave them all to us.”

Gabriel frowned. “Are you mocking me?”

“I am the Prince of Hell, Archangel. I am hardly going to argue with you that humanity is good and holy.”

Followed by their invisible observers, Gabriel and Beelzebub arrived at a market place right in front of the living rendition of the nativity scene. Even here, Gabriel noted, they were collecting money.

“See,” he pointed. “Tell me this isn’t greed, making money out of the Almighty's miracle.”

Beelzebub gave Gabriel a challenging look. Their hand disappeared in the folds of their clothes and when it emerged, it was holding a thick gold coin they demonstratively deposited into the collection much to the loud gratitude of the performers. Gabriel just rolled his eyes. Accepting a demonic coin won’t help the humans any.

Meanwhile, Beelzebub's gaze zeroed on a boy who played the angel in the stable. “Look, they got you almost right.” Gabriel scowled. The boy’s face was heavily pockmarked, his teeth crooked and thick badly dyed wool was placed on his head in place of hair.

“I liked the previous corporation. Why did you change it anyway?”

“I needed a better body.” proclaimed Gabriel.

“What was wrong with that one?”

“It wasn’t strong enough. In fact, it was right down puny. Fit for an errand boy, not a warrior of God.”

Beelzebub eyed him sideways. “You know that the size of your corporation has no effect on your strength as an angel.”

“Unless you are cut off from miracles.” muttered the observing Gabriel. 

His past version just shook his head. He was not foolish to point out such a weakness in front of his adversary. “It doesn’t matter. I want to be as ready for the Armageddon as I can be.”

“Eager to get rid of me so quickly?”

Gabriel shrugged. “It’s just a fact, Beelz. Sooner or later we will have war and Heaven will defeat Hell. It’s written.”

“Zzzo that’zz how it izz.”

Gabriel knew Beelzebub long enough to know that increased buzzing meant that they were irritated. He just couldn’t figure out what it was that made them so upset.

“Don’t pretend that it’s news for you. We know about this for over one and a half thousand years. If you ask me, your side has been dallying with delivering the Antichrist for far too long. Any chance you could get around to it?”

Fury flashed through Beelzebub’s eyes. “You know what? I don’t really mizz your old corporation, just to fact that you uzzed to be nize when you were occupying it. Zzince you had this body, you’ve been a right prick.”

“Oh, like your opinion coming from a filthy evil demon like you means anything to me. It’s just noise. You are just jealous that I have a corporation that will ground you into dust once the end of the world comes.”

Beelzebub kicked him in the shin so hard he had problems keeping his balance. “Don’t talk to me until the next zentennial meeting. Don’t call me, don’t look for me, don’t even thzink about me.”

Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “Why would I even do that?”

Beelzebub gave him one last furious look and popped out with a puff, much to the shock of humans standing in the vicinity. Gabriel ignored slight stirring of sadness and some other unnamed emotion stirring in his unbeating heart. Why should he be hurt by anger and a departure of a demon he was fated one day to kill on the battlefield? He and Beelzebub were enemies, just forced to communicate once in a while, nothing more.

As the fog started to spread around again, the observing Gabriel turned to Aziraphale. “And what was that supposed to show me? That I am so despicable that even the Prince of Hell despises me? They are a demon, they are supposed to hate everything. They esteem means nothing to me.”

“It did once,” said Aziraphale quietly.

“That was a long time ago. And mind I remind you that it was them who Fell, not me. Why are you not showing the error of their ways to them?”

“They don’t need it.”

“And I do?”

“Do you still not see it? Through this obsession with Armageddon, you have driven everybody away. Even Beelzebub is just about done with you. When was the last time you sang with your siblings? And the sad truth is it makes you unhappy. And because of that, you can’t stand when someone else is happy.”

“Nonsense! I have just seen what is important.”

“Then you have seen the wrong thing.”

“Enough. I think I don’t need to see more of this.”

“I agree. I’ve done all that I could. I think it is high time for my colleague the Angel of the Christmas Present to step in. Maybe he will succeed where I have failed.”

“Well, you both can shove it right up you….”

But with a flash, the Angel of the Christmas Past was gone and he was back in his personal quarters in Heaven. He wanted to pretend that he was merely irritated by the strange visions, but the fact was he was unsettled. He collapsed to his chair. As always when he was disturbed, he tried praying, but the right words just couldn't come to him. He kept getting distracted. He was still the same Gabriel as before, nothing fundamental changed in him, did it? Yet he couldn’t remember anything ordinary that just pleased him, or the last time he spent his time doing nothing meaningful, just hanging out and bonding with other angels.

He was so lost in thought, that he was surprised to hear the singing of the Second Choir. Something changed in the air and when he looked up there was a new person standing before him.

“I know you! What are you doing here?”

The demon Crowley just grinned.


	4. Chapter 4

Gabriel looked the demon up and down. He never met Crowley in person and only knew of him from reports, but from what he gathered over the centuries was that as demons went Crowley was one of the worst, always up to some mischief and inventing the most terrible deeds humans could do. 

But in this particular rendition, the demon didn’t look particularly threatening. He looked rather like Gabriel could snap him in half with his bare hands. But appearances could be deceiving, especially as the person claimed not to really be the demon and had power enough to bestow vision on the Archangel.

Gabriel scowled, annoyed just having to think about that. “And I suppose you are this Angel of Christmas Present?”

“You suppose correctly.”

“And why did you chose to look like that? That’s hardly going to be familiar.”

“It’s symmetry,” answered Crowley with a shrug of his shoulder, explaining nothing, much to Gabriel’s annoyance. “Now, let’s get to work. We have a lot of ground to cover.”

“I guess telling you that I’m absolutely not interested in any trips down the memory lane is useless.”

“Yup.” said the demon. He extended his hand and waved his fingers at him. When Gabriel didn’t take it he shook his head exasperated, and although it wasn’t visible under his dark glasses, he rolled his eyes. Fast as the strike of a cobra, he took Gabriel’s hand and they were floating away through the mist. Once they landed and it disappeared, they were in a well-lit place overflowing with people. They were all carrying multiple bags and there was so many of them that oftentimes they knocked into each other.

“This is one of the human marketplaces.” observed Gabriel with disgust, trying to avoid people walking through him as if he was a ghost. The strangest feeling wasn’t that it felt weird; he felt nothing at all, but he still knew about it and it was disturbing.

“It’s called a mall.”

“I don’t care. A strange choice of destination if you want to convince me of the goodness of the human race.”

“Actually it’s a perfect place.”

They travelled to the central area of the mall dominated by a huge tree so covered in lights and red and golden baubles that it was hard to discern that it was green to begin with. There was an artificial cardboard village under the tree and on the chair that looked more like a throne sat a man in a tacky red suit and an obviously fake beard. A long line of people went into the distance and Gabriel noted that many of them were children; he supposed that the adults must be their parents.

Crowley crossed the line effortlessly and stopped by the red-clad man. The small boy sat on his lap, naming the list of material possessions. Of the long list, Gabriel recognized only few items. What the Hell was a X-box?

“What’s is this? A barter?”

“Nope, it’s a big Christmas tradition in this part of the world. The kids tell Santa what they want for Christmas.”

“But it isn’t even real! There is no such thing as Santa!”

“Pssst.” Crowley shushed him furiously like the surrounding children could hear them. “It’s part of the Christmas magic.”

While they were taking the boy and his list of demands was replaced by a tiny girl.

“And what’s your name, young lady?” said the pretend Santa in his faux cheery voice.

“Carrie.”

“Well, Carrie, what do you want for Christmas?”

“I want Jessie to be okay again.” said the little girl in small voice.

“Oh, and who is Jessie?”

“Jessie is my sister. She is very sick. She has to be in a hospital during Christmas. Please Santa, can you make it so Jessie can come home?”

The man stroked his fake white beard thoughtfully. “Hmm, I am not sure this is something I can fix in my workshop.” Girl's face visibly fell. “But you know what? I’ll talk to my angel friends to see if they can do something.”

The girl gasped. “You can really do that?”

“Of course.” laughed the man. “I am Saint Nick, am I not?”

“Thank you, Santa!”

“Now is there something I can bring to you?”

“No, just my sister.”

“I think that a good girl like you deserves a lot of presents under the Christmas tree.”

“OK!”

As the girl bounced off the Santa’s knee and ran to her waiting father and another child perched on her emptied place, Gabriel turned a questioning gaze to Crowley.

“Come on,” groaned Crowley. “If you need me to explain the point of this to you, you are more stupid and oblivious than I thought.”

Gabriel shook his head. The fact was he was a bit confused and not entirely sure what to feel about what he just witnessed. So he decided to focus on the thing that made the most sense.

“That man lied.” there was a tiny amount of outrage in his voice.

“Oh?”

“He can’t do anything, but he still said to the girl that he will.”

“He tried to give her hope.” Crowley pointed out. 

“A false hope. She will be disappointed when nothing happens and her sister doesn’t get better.”

Crowley gave him a searching look that made Gabriel uncomfortable. “Are you angry because the man dared to presume to know angels or because the little girl will be hurt by his lie?”

Gabriel pressed his lips together and looked away. He wasn’t sure of the answer himself.

“Come, let’s go.” Crowley took his hand again but this time Gabriel was prepared and shook it off angrily.

“I didn’t give you a permission to touch me, demon!”

“Not a demon, remember?”

“Well, you chose to look like one so I will treat you like one.”

Crowley sighed. “Fine. Follow me then.” He turned around, spread his midnight wings and disappeared into the fog that was rapidly gathering around them. Reluctantly Gabriel followed. This time they landed in a dingy room filled with tables and chairs, all of it mismatched and well-used.

A crowd of scruffy men and women were gathered close to the long table where few other people were pouring them soup into plastic containers and distributed bread. They were always thanking their givers profoundly but were always replied with word that the Lord provided.

“What place is this?” 

“It’s called a soup kitchen. It’s a place where the poor, typically the homeless can get food for free. It relies on food that’s donated to them.” Crowley wiggled his eyebrows. “See, giving just like the spirit of Christmas dictates.”

One of the women behind the table leaned towards the elderly one who seemed to be in charge and whispered into her furiously. “The Lord would provide more if someone didn’t steal most of the food people donated for Christmas.”

“Hush, Cynthia. I am sure that whoever took it needed it as much as we did. We still have enough to feed all the people and what of it if it isn’t as rich as it could. Everyone will leave with warm bellies tonight.”

When the food was distributed and the elderly woman led people in the prayer thanking the Almighty for the meager fare, Gabriel leaned towards Crowley.

“Who stole their food?”

Crowley grinned. “You know who. Come.”

This time they didn’t fly but fell for so long that Gabriel was ready to scream. They appeared in the spacious cavern filled with demons dancing to the rhythm of, yes, it was the terrible Christmas songs.

There was a buffet on the sides. At first, Gabriel thought the tables were overflowing with all kinds of rich and exotic foods but on the closer inspection, he was rather disappointed. He always imagined parties in Hell like the parties the Emperors of Rome threw in the olden days, back when they still fed Christians to the lions. The tables in Hell were filled with food, yes, but most of it was canned or had not exactly appealing appearance.

“Why steal food from this soup kitchen and not these human superbmarket where they throw most of it away?”

“Supermarkets.” corrected Crowley absently. “And we are still demons! It’s our job to make trouble for the humans.”

Gabriel frowned. “You still left enough food for humans to be fed.”

Crowley shrugged innocently. “It’s Christmas?”

They made their way through the press of demons. Gabriel noted there was more ways this event differed from what Gabriel imagined of Hell’s parties. Yes, there was obnoxious music and terrible dancing; some demons danced around what looked like a giant pin; but there was no fighting, no flying insults. In fact demons seemed to be surprisingly polite to each other. He saw one demon apologising to another for bumping into him and the harmed party dismissing it with a wave and a smile, and another demon helping the small one with huge claws to open a bottle. He noted as much to Crowley.

“Of course! It’s Christmas after all. One day in all of the year when demons decide to stop being demons and be nice to each other. It gets tiring to be evil and miserable all the time, you know. Really the only time I don’t mind going down to Hell. In fact, there I am. Well, the real Crowley is.” He pointed to a tall red-haired figure was that was showing his moves to a group of younger demons, who all looked very impressed. 

But Gabriel was drawn by another set of figures behind the dancing demons and he set off towards them so fast that the ghost Crowley could barely keep up.

“Good job on the refreshments this year, Beelzebub.” Lucifer was saying. He and some other members of the Dark Council were seated around their own table. “I see you even managed to find some turkey for us.”

Beelzebub nodded, pleased. “If the hordes restrain themselves there even will be enough leftover for the New Year’s Eve. And what about you, sire, how went your...negotiations?” 

“Agreeably. Heaven won’t bother us during the holidays, we won’t bother them, just like last year. Make sure no-one goes against the truce.”

Gabriel gaped at the revelation. He had no idea there was such an arrangement. He felt an anger against whoever in Heaven participated in this against his knowledge. And apparently it was going on for years. He gritted his teeth. There will be payback in Heaven.

“Did every archangel agree? Even Gabriel?” asked one of the other demons, which Gabriel recognized as Moloch.

Lucifer waved his hand lazily. “Gabriel has no idea, as always.”

“What if he does something?”

“Pleazze,” snorted Beelzebub. “Gabriel doesn’t come out on Christmas. He hates it.”

“I thought he was a Christmas Angel. The Christmas Angel rather.”

“I don’t think he likes that. He must think it’s beneath him.” said Beelzebub.

“Gabriel thinks everything is beneath him.” said Lucifer. “And to think that it was me who was cast out for pride.”

Asmodeus made a face. “Ugh, Gabriel in Hell. What a terrible image.” Asmodeus puffed out his chest and imitated Gabriel’s tone of voice quite convincingly. “I am the archangel fucking Gabriel. Look at me, with my fake smile, and purple eyes and purple wings, and fine suit and shiny shoes, you should lick them. You are just vermin, bow before me, foul demons.”

Other demons around the table erupted in laughter. Even Lucifer cracked a smile. Only one who didn’t make a sound was, much to Gabriel pleasure, Beelzebub. Lucifer noticed that too.

“You don’t find it funny?”

“More insulting. You know that he keeps harassing me about the Armageddon. _We are going to smash you, Beelz. Why don’t you surrender right away? When is Hell going to produce the Antichrist?_ Makes me want to punch him and then myself.”

“I don’t know what you ever saw in him,” said Moloch.

“He wasn’t always like that,” muttered Beelzebub.

“Oh, Beelzebub, it has been six thousand years. You Fell, he changed. You have to let it go.” said Lucifer, squeezing their shoulder comfortingly.

Gabriel ignored how his heart seemed to be constricting. It was because he was angry, he decided. Angry about how demons were talking about him. But then again, what else he could expect for a bunch of demons. He turned to Crowley instead.

“I won’t listen to any more of that.”

“Why? Does the truth hurt?” mocked Crowley.

“That’s not truth. They are just a bunch of demons. The demons who steal from the poor and make fun of their betters. I had enough of this. Return me back to Heaven.”

“Alright.”

They ascended out of Hell and made their back into Heaven, but much to Gabriel’s disappointment he didn't wake in his quarters again. Instead they turned up in one of the side chambers of the Grand Choir, which was now occupied by his archangelic siblings. They didn’t react to the presence of Gabriel and the demon in their midst at all and he knew that he was still inside his vision.

The Archangels put away their modern work suits and dressed in much older regalia. They had all their wings out. Some of them focused on grooming the wings of others, some were tuning their instrument. Jealousy swept through him. It had been years since he had his wings groomed by someone else.

“Pity that Gabriel refused to come.” said Remiel, trying the string on her harp. “We could really use his trumpet in our performance.”

“Gabriel didn’t want to come as we all expected.” said Uriel.

“At least we won’t have to listen to his grouchiness.”

“Raziel! That’s most unkind!” chided Jophiel.

“Well, to be honest, I am kind of glad he isn’t here.” said Raphael, looking at his feet. “I have been avoiding him.”

“Is that why you spend so much time away?”

“Yes. Gabriel has been so annoying, oh, I don’t know, last thousand years. It’s always Armageddon this, Armageddon that. Always on my case that I should be training and preparing. I don’t want there to be the Armageddon in the first place.”

“Well,” said Michael awkwardly after Raphael’s outburst. “That’s not our decision to make. Gabriel took the responsibility for the preparation for the war on his shoulders. I am sure he is simply overworked.”

“Work is only thing Gabriel does these day. He isn’t willing to make time for us outside the official business.” complained Zadkiel. “And frankly he is an ass about it too, lording his position over us.”

“Gabriel doesn’t do his job properly too. He is the Christmas Angel. He should be the one doing all the miracles on Earth this time of the year. But I heard he dumped all the work on Aziraphale. The other principalities were muttering about it and they didn’t sound happy.” added Raguel.

“Well, not everyone in this room is pulling their weight as they should, leaving more work for us who stay here all the time.” Michael gave a particularly hard stare to Raphael. Several archangel who found themselves guilty of what Michael accused them looked away in shame.

“We will step up to our duties, I promise.” said Raphael earnestly.

“Good, then maybe Gabriel will be able to take time off and destress.”

“Doubt it.” muttered Raziel mulishly.

A lesser ranked angel stuck his head inside the room, breaking the debate. “They are ready for you.”

The archangels gathered their instruments, checked that their robes were properly flowing and entered the stage.

Gabriel would lie if he claimed that watching and hearing his siblings sing in perfect synchrony didn’t affect him at all. They were glorious, as one could expect from the Archangels. But he couldn’t get rid of the feeling that there was something missing. He felt small and alone and his eyes were moist by the time they finished their first song and started the second.

“Let’s go.” he announced.

“Running from the truth again?”

“I am not running!”

Crowley ignored him “You know, you could have joined them. They asked you.”

“It doesn’t matter.” his voice sounded wrong even to himself.

“There is no reason to be such a miserable sod. A miserable sod who makes other poor sods miserable.” 

“I don’t make anyone miserable.” argued Gabriel weakly.

“No? Look at them. Do they look entirely happy?” 

They didn’t. Although they sounded perfect, underneath the perfect voices, the archangels sounded stilted. Michael had a pinched look on her face, Raphael only seemed to be opening his mouth out of obligation.

“They are fine without me. They said so themselves.”

“Sure, you annoy them. But they are also worried about you. They miss you."

“They miss the old me. Well, it's gone. It's just me left. Anyway, it doesn’t matter.” repeated Gabriel through gritted teeth. He made his choice, so he will live with it.

Crowley looked resigned. “Fine. You know what, let’s go see another angel you made miserable this year.”

There was no transitioning fog this time. They just appeared in Aziraphale’s bookshop. Aziraphale was there and he seemed to be putting on a warm coat (terribly out of style, Gabriel noted) with particularly unhappy expression on his face.

It was then that the perfect replica of Gabriel's companion burst into the bookshop with a grin that could almost be called manic.

“Angel, here you are!

“Crowley?”

Crowley grinned again. He looked drunk and Gabriel wondered if he just came back from Hell’s party. “I got something for you.”

“What is it, my dear?”

“I got us tickets for the Nutcracker!”

Gabriel watched Aziraphale’s reaction with interest. Was Nutcracker some strange challenge to a duel?

Aziraphale sighed. “I can’t.”

“What, you can’t? You…” Crowley seemed to notice Aziraphale’s attire. “You are going somewhere?”

“Gabriel gave me work for Christmas.”

“What?! He usually leaves you alone at Christmas. Hell, he usually leaves you alone most of the year.”

“Well, not this year. And there is quite a lot of miracles for me to do, so I need to get to it right away.”

“Show me.”

“Pardon?”

“Come on, show me what he has you to do.” goaded Crowley.

Reluctantly, Aziraphale reached into his jacket and pulled out the folded out paper and much to Gabriel’s shock handed it to the demon. Gabriel’s brain almost stopped working. There he was. Aziraphale. The agent of Heaven. Giving what could be considered valuable intel to Crowley. A demon. The agent of Hell. That was a treason, wasn’t it?

While Gabriel’s mind was rebooting itself, Crowley read the list and gaped. “Aziraphale, this is bullshit.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Yes. It is. You can’t possibly hope to make it till 25th. Hell, you can’t make it in time for the New Year.”

“I have to. Otherwise Gabriel will be very cross.”

“Gabriel can get stuffed. You will do sloppy work in the rush and he will be cross anyway.”

“I don’t have any other choice.” cried Aziraphale.

“Did you forget our Arrangement?”

“Oh, Crowley, would you? But I haven’t got anything else to do in return.”

Crowley smiled beatifically. “Consider it my Christmas present.” Nonchalantly he ripped the list in two and handed one half back to Aziraphale. “You do one half, I’ll do the other. Meet you here after we are done?”

“Oh, thank you!”

“It’s nothing. Now, about that Nutcracker.”

While the angel and demon left to perform miracles, Gabriel picked his jaw from the ground.

“But...but…”

“But...but…” repeated the other Crowley mockingly.

“But he is a demon!” exploded Gabriel.

“So?”

“He can’t just perform miracles. I will notice!”

“Oh, you won’t. You never do.”

“This...isn’t the first time?!”

“Nope.” Crowley made himself comfortable in an armchair and gave Gabriel amused smile.

“So Aziraphale is a traitor.” muttered Gabriel, feeling betrayed and sad. He trusted Aziraphale to perform his duties on Earth, thinking he was reliable and responsible and all that time he was fraternizing.

“What makes you say that?”

“It’s obvious. These two are much more familiar with each other than sworn enemies should be. He is sharing information with the enemy, for God’s sake!”

“Interesting that you mention God.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she sees all, doesn’t she?”

“Yes?” answered Gabriel cautiously. He had a bad feeling that wherever the demons was aiming he won’t like it.

“So she must have seen what Aziraphale is doing and she didn’t make him Fall, as the traitor should.”

“But…”

“So she probably doesn’t mind.”

“But…”

“No more buts.”

“What’s in it for the demon though?”

The aforementioned demon’s copy groaned. “Gabriel, since you are apparently as dumb as these two, let me spell it out for you. They are in L-O-V-E.”

“Aziraphale is an angel! Crowley is a demon! They can be in…” Crowley gave him look so disapproving it almost burned through his ridiculous glasses. “...love.” he finished with a swallow.

“You are one to speak.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Gabriel said, outraged.

“Nothing, nothing. You aren’t ready to hear _that._ Now let’s go, I think you saw what you needed to see.”

When Gabriel returned to his quarters and Crowley disappeared, he collapsed on the sofa, feeling suddenly very exhausted. So many revelation tonight and he couldn’t make sense of this. Was what he saw what was really happening?

He decided to close his eyes for a while and he must have lost sense of time, because when he became aware of his surroundings again, the Third Choir was singing and there was a ragged dark figure before him.

“Are you the Angel of the Christmas Yet to Come, then?”

The figure only lifted it claw-like hand and moved its bloodied finger. _Come._


	5. Chapter 5

Their first destination was nowhere else than in Heaven itself. They made their way into Gabriel’s office. At first glance, it looked exactly the same as he left it. Same huge window providing a great view of Silver City. The same purple carpet. Same elegant furniture. The only thing that changed was that Sandalphon sat behind his desk buried in the paperwork up to his nose. Once in awhile, he sighed unhappily.

Sandalphon himself looked different. There was a ragged scar travelling from his hairline down across his eye, which Gabriel noticed was missing, to his jaw. He looked tired too.

“What is Sandalphon doing in my office? And what happened to him?”

His companion was silent. He hadn’t said a word since he arrived and Gabriel almost started to miss Aziraphale’s attempts at helpful explanations and Crowley’s mocking. In truth the Angel of the Christmas Yet to Come looked more like a demon, with his torn filthy cloak with a long cape covering his face so nothing was visible of the features. It smelled bad too and he noticed with outrage that a black oily substance congealed at its feet on Gabriel’s carpet.

Now the creature only grunted and extended its hand towards the door that slowly opened. It was Uriel who entered.

“How is it going?” they asked.

Sandalphon shrugged. “Slowly. Gabriel really should have done all these months ago. He seemed to be neglecting his actual work in favour of his...other activities. He left a mess behind.”

Uriel gave Sandalphon a sympathetic smile. “I am sure you will sort it out. We have every confidence in your capabilities.”

Sandalphon seemed only to shrink on himself. “Uriel, are you sure about this promotion? I am not Gabriel, I can’t do his job.”

“Gabriel is gone. He isn’t coming back,” said Uriel tad more harshly than they intended. “We have to let him go. Have you considered redecorating this office to fit you? It might help with the transition.”

Sandalphon looked downright horrified at the suggestion. “I can’t do that! It’s _Gabriel’s_ office.”

“It’s your office now. Your job. You can’t turn it into some strange twisted shrine to Gabriel. You can’t live in his shadow forever. It isn’t healthy.”

“I know. It just feels wrong. If I change the things in this room, what is going to be left of him in Heaven? It will be like he was never here in the first place.”

“We won’t forget him. There are six thousand years of good memories of him.”

Sandalphon gave them a bitter smile. “My memory of him is tainted by our last encounter.” His fingers rubbed his scar.

If Gabriel needed to breathe, it would have now stopped. Was he somehow responsible for Sandalphon state? No, he wouldn’t do something like that. It must be that Gabriel fell in battle and Sandalphon received his wound trying to help him. He sent a silent prayer for it to be true. Other option that intruded on his mind, that Sandalphon turned on him, was not acceptable. He tried to convince himself of that, but his heart didn’t believe it.

“You did what you had to.” Uriel tried to comfort him.

“ Then why do I feel like I was the traitor and a backstabber? I feel I just took Gabriel’s job from him, that I should have helped him more. Maybe it would have ended differently.”

_No, no, no!_

“We all tried to help him. We tried to warn him of the consequences, but he didn’t listen. You know what he was like after the failure of the Armageddon. Gabriel made his own decision to pursue the traitors against standing orders, there is no-one to blame for his fate but himself.”

“Still, I miss him,” said Sandalphon quietly. Uriel nodded and touched his hand gently. 

“I miss him too. But we have to face reality. He is lost to us.”

They remained in their position for a while, hands bowed.

“What they were talking about? What happened to me? What did mean about the failed Armageddon?”

The being in front of him only gurgled in response.

“Answer me!” He took hold of the future angel’s robes with an intention to shake them. The creature roared and before Gabriel knew it, he was flying through the air. He hit the wall and crumpled on the floor. Vision or not, it actually hurt and stunned him.

He looked up to see the being towering over him. It picked him up in a steely grip, spread huge black wings that looked truly horrible with burned spots and bent feathers and carried him away. Gabriel struggled to free himself but it was useless. It was stronger than him. They flew for a long time. The air was freezing and one time they were hit by icy sleet. Against himself Gabriel actually started to shiver from cold.

When they eventually landed, Gabriel scrambled out of the creature's cold embrace. He looked around the idyllic little village they were now in. The fresh snow covered the ground and the surrounding cottages were decorated in Christmas lights. It was dark and quiet and apart from a person that was slowly approaching them, there was not a living thing in sight.

As the person got closer, Gabriel recognized the demon Crowley. Despite the darkness around them he still wore his sunglasses. He was carrying heavy bags. He passed them and they followed silently, Gabriel a little sourly. The previous vision disturbed him and he had a suspicion that it wasn’t going to get better. 

Crowley reached the small cottage that unlike its neighbours was completely dark and devoid of decorations. He banged on the door. The frame was covered with various sigils, there was so many of them that Gabriel thought it was a bit excessive.

“Aziraphale, open up. It’s me, Crowley.”

So Aziraphale continued his treasonous association with the demon. Gabriel wondered if he suffered any consequences.

“How do I know it’s you?” came Aziraphale’s muffled voice from behind the door.

“Come on, it’s me! I have grocery! I bought your favourite brand of tea.”

“Prove it!”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“Alright, what did we eat on the evening in June 1657 in St Petersburg, when you came to tempt the tsar?”

“Angel, St Petersburg wasn’t even founded back then. We met there in 1857 and we had some very strong vodka and no food.”

There was a sound of a key in the lock and the door slowly opened. Aziraphale’s pale face appeared. He gave Crowley once-over and only then he opened the door fully, letting Crowley in. Gabriel and his companion quickly followed and Aziraphale slammed the door closed after he nervously glanced into the darkness searching God knew for what.

The demon and angel moved to another room and started to put various items from Crowley’s bags to the cabinets.

“Really, angel, St Petersburg? Anyone could look it up.”

“Heaven and Hell wouldn’t bother to know this.” Aziraphale shrugged. “And where have you been? Do you know how worried I was when you didn’t come back by sundown?”

“I am sorry. There was ice on the road and I had to drive slowly. If someone didn’t insist I don’t use any miracles, I could have been home much sooner.”

Aziraphale pursed his lips. “We can’t risk that! They could track us this way.”

“We are under so many wards God Herself must have trouble seeing us.”

Aziraphale shook his head. “It isn’t worth it. We already had to flee from London. I don’t want to leave here too. I like it here.”

“We won’t have to leave. Nothing will happen.”

“We already thought that. We thought that after the Armageddon we will be left alone but Gabriel still came back and tried to kill us. I can’t lose you, Crowley.”

Gabriel swallowed. What had he done that it left Aziraphale so rattled?

“I know. But Aziraphale, we can’t keep looking over our shoulder for the rest of eternity. It isn’t healthy.”

In fact, Aziraphale didn’t look healthy at all. He seemed to have lost weight, and while other time Gabriel would welcome the indulgent principality getting back into shape, he appeared to be ill, with pale sallow skin and dark circles under his eyes.

“I know,” said Aziraphale so quietly he was barely audible.

“Hey, I have news that might cheer you up.”

“What news?”

“Heard from some old friends of mine that Gabriel was punished for what he had done.”

“Punished? How?”

“Let’s just say he is enjoying different digs right now.”

“You mean…? But he is Her favourite, always has been! He could get away with...well, murder.”

Crowley grinned with smug satisfaction. “Seems even Her tolerance is limited. It couldn’t happen sooner and to a better person, if you ask me.”

“But Crowley, doesn’t it just make him even more dangerous?”

“From what I heard, he didn’t take his demotion well. We won’t have to worry about him ever again.” Crowley sounded almost giddy and Gabriel was filled with hot rage when he heard him celebrating his misfortune. Whatever the misfortune was.

Aziraphale didn’t sound as confident. “But there are still others.”

Crowley shook his head and took Aziraphale by the shoulders. “Don’t you see, angel? God punished Gabriel for attacking us. It’s a clear message that She doesn’t want us harmed, that She is on our side. We are safe.”

Crowley and Aziraphale hugged. The angel had tears of relief in his eyes and Crowley gently kissed the crown of his head. “Merry Christmas.”

A wet sob escaped Aziraphale. “Merry Christmas, my dear.”

Gabriel watched the scene with wide eyes, feeling cold in his chest.

Someone tugged at his sleeves. Gabriel turned to the Angel of the Christmas Future. “The demon lies. I would never do anything to invite the wrath of the Almighty. I serve her faithfully. It’s these two who are the traitors. Why the Almighty doesn’t do something about this!” he pointed towards Aziraphale and Crowley who were now sharing a slow languid kiss. There was a touch of hysteria in Gabriel’s voice.

The ghost pulled at his hand again and pointed towards the floor.

“I am not going! I don’t want to see anymore.”

But the Angel had an unbreakable grasp on his hand and soon they were moving again, traveling downward. When they finally stopped, they were surrounded by total darkness. There was a sound of a low wailing, like a dying kitten. 

To Gabriel’s right a metal door opened with a screech and the place, a small room carved into solid rock, was bathed in dim light. The wailing increased.

There was a creature curled up in the corner. It was completely naked, its skin blackened and burned, and it lay in its own blood and other fluids Gabriel didn’t care to recognize. The black burned wings lay limply on the ground, framing the shivering body.

“That’s him?” asked one of the newcomers with disgust. It was Beelzebub and the demon accompanying the diminutive Prince was none other than Dagon. 

“Yes. How the mighty have Fallen,” commented Dagon.

Beelzebub inspected the figure on the floor with a detached expression on their face. “Pity. We could have used the power of the Archangel on our side.”

Dagon shrugged. “Some angels just can’t come to terms with Falling, that mummy doesn’t love them anymore. They lose their mind.”

“He has been like this since he got here?”

Dagon nodded. “There is no chance of him getting better. He is destined for the pits to spend the rest of eternity wailing with other crazies. It would almost be a relief to destroy him right away.”

Beelzebub shook their head. “Lucifer won’t allow that. He is sentimental like that.”

“Then there is nothing for us left to do. We might as well leave him here to rot and join the party upstairs.”

Dagon left. Beelzebub lingered for a few more moments with an almost sad look on their face. But then they too turned around and slammed the door closed. The small cell was plunged into darkness again and the creature in the corner screeched.

“That’s not me! That’s just a trick! I couldn’t...I can’t end up like this. I am a loyal servant of the Almighty!”

Soundlessly the Angel of the Christmas Yet to Come summoned a light. He pointed at the whimpering demon on the ground and he started to dissolve like he was being sucked into a vacuum, until he and the demon on the ground were one. The demon started to lift his head.

 _No!_ Gabriel didn’t want to look yet some strange power forced him to stare with his eyes wide open.

The demon’s face was ruined almost beyond recognition. Spines instead hair covered his scalp and the strangely shaped horns bending into the circle above his head grew out of his skull like some cruel mockery of a halo. He had no nose, just two triangular holes and half of his jaw was missing. The left eye socket was empty. From the second one single deep purple eye was staring at him.

Gabriel screamed and scrambled back. “This isn’t real. It can’t be.”

The Fallen slowly rose and shuffled toward him as if his feet were tied together.

“It doesn’t have to be real. There are many possible futures.”

The demon Gabriel extended his hands towards him with a growl.

“Please, I can change. Give me a chance to do better. I won’t fall.”

The demon’s hands enclosed around Gabriel’s throat and started choking him. Gabriel trashed, trying to dislodge the demon but his strength was unshakable. Blackness gathered around the edge of his vision. Then he lost consciousness.

..............................

He woke up lying on his back, blurry outline of the figure hovering above him. He scrambled back in the panic until his eyes focused and he recognized the angel. It was Sandalphon, looking all concerned. 

“Gabriel, are you alright? I heard screaming and I found you lying on the floor.”

Disoriented, Gabriel looked around. He was back in his room in Heaven.

“Gabriel?”

Gabriel cleared his throat. “I am alright, Sandalphon.”

“Are you sure? Should I call Michael? Or the Archangel Raphael?”

“No, no, there is no need to bother them.” Gabriel attempted a smile. “I think I am just overworked. You can go back to work.”

“If you are sure.” Sandalphon got up to leave reluctantly. He really was a loyal subordinate. Why didn’t Gabriel appreciate it before?

“Wait! Tell me, what day is it? Is the singing competition tonight?”

“Um, yes, it’s tonight.” answered Sandalphon with uncertainty. 

“Great.” answered Gabriel with a huge grin. “Then you should go and join your choir.” Gabriel picked himself from the floor with giddy energy.

“But you said our department can’t attend.”

“Balderdash. Crazy muttering of an old fool. I am really sorry I forbid you from practicing. As I said I think I am just overworked. You go and enjoy yourself! And Merry Christmas!”

“Oh, thank you!” Sandalphon started turning around. “Will you join us?”

“No, no, I think I’ll join my siblings.”

Sandalphon nodded and disappeared out of the door quickly in case Gabriel should change his mind.

Gabriel nodded to himself. He will prevent the nightmare future from coming true. And if it meant liking Christmas, well, he will be the happiest angel in Heaven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify, in this verse Sandalphon isn't the Archangel or one of Gabriel's siblings. He is Gabriel's underling and he was promoted up to his current position.


	6. Chapter 6

The Archangel Gabriel was rushing to the Grand Choir. It was such an unusual sight that the passing angels were struck dumb by the image. On top of that, he kept wishing Merry Christmas to anyone he came across. The Archangel’s distaste for Christmas has spread to the whole Heaven, from the mightiest cherub guarding the gates to the lowest maintenance angel, so those that were bestowed with a greeting often resolved to have their hearing checked.

Once he got to the Grand Choir, Gabriel slowed down. Doubt gripped him. What if the other archangels didn’t want to see him? He couldn’t help but remember the hurtful things he overheard in his vision.

“....I don’t want there to be the Armageddon in the first place.” The vision that was turning out to be accurate. 

Gabriel hesitated inside the doorway, considering just leaving without attracting any attention. It was stupid anyway. He was grouchy, that was the fact and his siblings were probably right not to want him here. But it was too late. Michael spotted him and coughed discreetly, kicking Raphael to the shin quite unsubtly.

“Oh.” Raphael looked up guilty.

“Hi, Gabriel,” said Michael. The rest of the Archangels murmured their greetings. “What brings you here?”

“I wanted…” the awkward atmosphere in the room was palpable. “It doesn’t matter,” he muttered turning back. 

Michael caught him by the elbow and dragged him back among his siblings. “Nonsense. What makes you think that whatever you have on your mind doesn’t matter to us?”

Gabriel looked down. “Can I join you?”

“Of course,” said Michael. “We invited you in the first place.” other Archangels nodded in agreement.

“I didn’t practice with you. I’ll probably sing out of sync.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Raphael. “We are singing all the classics, you should know them by heart. The point of this isn’t to be perfect, it’s to have some fun.”

“But this won’t go,” said Zadkiel, pointing at his ruffled suit. Gabriel reddened. He shot out of his room without considering he was lying on the floor previously.

Uriel eyed him critically. “Raphael, fetch Gabriel’s things.”

With embarrassment, Gabriel realized that he left so quickly he didn’t even remember to take anything with him. He was about to say that he will fetch his stuff himself but Raphael was already reaching into the boxes piled at the wall and a few moments later they were forcing Gabriel into his old robes and were pressing his trumpet into his hands.

“You have my things here?”

“Of course.”

“Why? I said I won’t come.”

Uriel rolled their eyes. “We hoped you will change your mind. And we are glad you did.”

There wasn’t a lump in Gabriel’s throat. Definitely not. Still, he had felt a bit touched that his siblings didn’t give up on him yet. His resolution not to let them go through his Falling grew stronger.

They dragged him to a stage. The Grand Choir was already filled to a brim with angels and Gabriel noticed the Metatron and Jesus to the side, sitting behind the judges' panel. Gabriel was relieved that the Archangels were only an opening performance and weren’t actually competing. He would probably ruin it for the others.

Raphael was right. He was pretty familiar with the songs they sang. _Jesus Refulsit Omnium_ made him think about the first time Christmas was celebrated in Heaven. Even back then Gabriel wasn’t thrilled about the idea, but his connection to his siblings was much stronger. They eventually pulled him in and he enjoyed that Christmas.

Yet between then and now the distance grew between him and the rest of angels. He always felt they didn’t take their responsibilities seriously enough. Was the Angel of the Christmas Past right, and he had grown unhappy too?

Now singing in the choir once again, playing his trumpet at the appropriate places, he felt himself relaxing. Maybe it was fine to drop his guard once in a while.

Finally, the last song arrived. Michael stepped in front of the other Archangels for her solo.

_I don't want a lot for Christmas_

_There is just one thing I need_

_I don't care about the presents_

_Underneath the Christmas tree_

The Angels beneath them cheered wildly.

Gabriel suppressed a groan. Really?

Christmas or not, Mariah Carey, he swore to himself, will go right to hell for this. Raphael nudged him with his elbow, innocent grin and a wink. Gabriel would swear that this song was his idea. Reluctantly he joined in the refrain.

_I just want you for my own_

_More than you could ever know_

_Make my wish come true_

_All I want for Christmas is you_

After the song finally ended, much to Gabriel's relief and the Archangels exited the stage with the sound of cheers and even catcalls - seriously, that was a little bit too much, Gabriel will have to talk with the Host about their decorum - Gabriel turned to his siblings.

“Thank you. This was...nice.”

“The day isn’t over yet,” said Michael. “Why don’t you accompany us to an official feast. You don’t have to eat anything. Just turn up.”

“No. I have other plans.” 

Michael nodded, trying to look understanding, but not entirely hiding her disappointment. She hoped they were finally starting to get Gabriel to loosen up.

“Maybe you could help me. If you want?”

Raphael perked up. “Oh, with what?”

………………………..

For the second time that day Gabriel barged into Aziraphale’s bookshop without as much as knocking. Just in the corner of his eye, he spotted a snake disappearing under the desk and he almost rolled his eyes.

“Gabriel, did you forget something?” asked Aziraphale, cringing. Obviously he expected to be given more work.

“Yes. I made a mistake. It happens even to the best of us.” Gabriel grinned. “On the second thought, I think you can take Christmas off, Aziraphale, since you worked so hard the whole year.”

“Really? But the miracles...”

“I think I can manage them myself. It’s appropriate, really. I am the original Christmas Angel, after all. So give them to me.”

Looking like he was in a trance, Aziraphale handed over the list of miracles to be done.

“Are you sure? There is a lot of them. I could still do some…” started Aziraphale. Gabriel stopped him with a raised hand.

“There’s really no need. Other Archangels promised to help. And most of the Principalities volunteered too. Oh, actually, before I forget, you are expected to show up for the next Principality reunion. No excuses for too much work this time. I can cover for you if you need to.” cheerfully, Gabriel slapped Aziraphale on the shoulder. The angel nodded dumbly.

“Now, I guess you can go to see The Nutcocker with the demon Crowley.” said Gabriel with the wink.

“The Nutcracker.” corrected Aziraphale automatically. Then his brain caught up with what Gabriel just said and he visibly swallowed. “What do you mean? Why would I go with Crowley?”

Gabriel leaned to Aziraphale, whispering dramatically. “Come on, no need to be coy. I know everything about you and demon Crowley.”

“How?!”

“I am the Archangel Fucking Gabriel. It’s my job to know things. It’s gonna be between the two of us. As long as no-one is hurt and Hell doesn’t learn any of our secrets I think I can turn a blind eye to it.” he turned to the desk. “That means you too, Crowley.”

With a smile, Gabriel clasped Aziraphale on the shoulder. “Merry Christmas.” and he was out of the shop, slamming the front door so hard the window panes rattled.

Crowley climbed from beneath the desk. “He went completely barmy. Do you think someone spiked his eggnog?”

“Gabriel doesn’t drink,” mumbled Aziraphale, still shell-shocked.

“Well, as we say in Hell, don’t look gift angel at the wings. We got his permission to see The Nutcracker. Shall we?”

…………………….

Gabriel felt he had dealt with Aziraphale pretty well. For some reason, he always unnerved him and he never was quite sure how to communicate with his field agent. It always seemed Aziraphale was never impressed with anything Gabriel did. His success put him in a good mood and the rest of the day’s work passed pretty quickly.

He gave a young woman courage to leave her abusive boyfriend and find refuge with her estranged sister. He frightened two thieves into giving up the life of crime and becoming the pillars of the society instead. He made sure that a young man caught his flight so he could arrive home in time for the last Christmas with his father who was set to die during the following year. 

He was about to go back to Heaven when he remembered that he still had one more miracle to perform. He sent a quick prayer and a direction appeared in his mind. With silent thanks, he transported himself to a certain hospital and walked into the children oncology ward, slipping unobserved into a particular room. It was still very in the early morning in this part of the world and the room was dark, only illuminated by the faint lights of the medical equipment. A woman, probably a mother, napped on the uncomfortable chair next to the bed. With a wave, Gabriel sent her into even deeper slumber and focused on an emaciated girl on the bed.

Gabriel didn’t need his angelic senses to know that without divine intervention the girl will die in a matter of days. He reached into metaphysical space and poured his healing energy into the girl, destroying the cancerous cells, restoring her strength and making sure that the disease will never return.

He was just about finished when a small voice piped from the level of his knees. “What are you doing?”

Gabriel jumped almost a meter back in fright and scrambled to catch a piece of some medical machine he managed to knock over. Carefully he put it back. This miracle wasn’t technically approved and Gabriel was trying not to overdo it with other miracles that would attract unwanted attention and earned him a reprimand.

“Nothing. Nothing. I was just...checking. Yes, checking. I am a doctor.”

“You were putting light into Jessie.”

“No, I wasn’t.” Gabriel frowned. A human wasn't supposed to be able to see that. 

“I saw you.” said little girl stubbornly. “You did something to her. I am going to tell mamma.”

“No! I was helping her. You have to believe me, Carrie.”

The little girl frowned. “How do you know my name?”

“Because, um…” Gabriel gave her a broad smile. “Because my friend Saint Nick sent me to deliver your Christmas present. But you have to keep quiet, it was supposed to be a surprise.”

“You are an angel?” shouted a girl.

“Psst. Not so loud,” whispered Gabriel. “I am the Archangel Gabriel.” he puffed out his chest a little.

Carrie looked at him dubiously, unimpressed. “You can’t be an angel. You don’t have wings.”

“My wings wouldn’t fit in here,” said Gabriel. His wings in fact didn’t fit in the most of human dwellings. His primary pair alone had wingspan nearly ten meters. 

But Carrie wasn’t satisfied and put her fist on her sides. “Prove it.”

Gabriel sighed. It seemed he will have to perform one more miracle whether he wished or not. With a flick of his wrist, he produced a white lily, crouched to her eye level and put it into the girl's hair. Carrie gaped at him.

“You really are an angel,” she said in awe.

“I told you.”

“Is Jessie going to be alright?”

“She is completely healed,” said Gabriel seriously. In a blink of an eye, he had tiny human hands wrapped around his neck and Carrie chanted into his ear “thank you, thank you.”

Gabriel patted her on her back awkwardly. “Now, human child, I have many other duties and have to go.”

Carrie let go of him. He was almost out of the door when she called after him. “Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas.” he returned with a smile.

After a few steps, he stopped with a stunned realization he actually enjoyed this. That he enjoyed performing miracles to help people and that it was a feeling he didn’t experience in what seemed to be eons. 

………………………

The moment Gabriel at the head of the angels entered the great cavern where Lucifer hosted his Christmas party, one could know when exactly each demon noticed them because they stopped their dancing abruptly and stared dumbly at the unannounced invasion. Eventually, even the music died with a whimper.

“Hi!” started Gabriel. Behind him, Michael rolled her eyes.

“We come in peace.” Raphael chimed in.

“And we bring gifts,” added Gabriel. The angels were in fact armed with huge silver plates full of all kinds of food. “So we thought we come to the party since you so kindly invited us.”

“He was invited and dragged us with him.” corrected Uriel.

Lucifer was the first one to collect himself. He gave Beelzebub a long look and then stood up with a charming smile. “Of course. Welcome. I am happy to have you here. The bigger the party the better, am I not right?”

The demons echoed their agreement. 

“Now, let me take that, Mike.” Lucifer took Michael's plate, set it on the nearest surface and then the two hugged fondly as if the battle between them from the dawn of time wasn’t legendary. Gabriel gaped. He was worried that his decision to drag the angels to Hell will be met with more problems but the reality seemed to be the exact opposite. Lucifer’s and Michael’s acceptance of each other opened a flood of greetings. Raphael hurried to hug Asmodeus and Uriel shuffled close to Dagon.

Once the angels were relieved of their offerings and the music resumed, Beelzebub dragged Gabriel into the nearest corner.

“What’s going on?” they asked without preamble.

“I don’t know what you are talking about?” Gabriel looked genuinely confused.

“What are you doing here?”

“You invited me, remember?”

“Yes. But I didn’t expect you to actually come. Or bring all your friends with you.”

Gabriel’s face fell a little. “Oh, did I do something wrong? Should I go?”

Beelzebub caught him by the elbow before he did something stupid and actually left. “No, no. I did invite you. I am just a little surprised. I thought you didn’t like Christmas.”

Gabriel smiled. “Well, I had an epiphany and decided to give it a chance. After all, if Christmas is supposed to bring new hope to the humans, why it couldn’t bring it to us angels...and demons.”

Beelzebub gave him a suspicious look but a rustle above their heads drew away their attention. They both looked up. There was a lump of something green above them.

“That wasn’t here a moment ago,” said Beelzebub. They looked around and spotted a demon hiding behind a bowl of fish soup. “Eric,” they growled.

“What is it?” asked Gabriel, knitting his brows together in the confusion. Beelzebub sighed. Eric was lucky that it was Christmas. Damm whole Hell for knowing about their crush on Gabriel.

“Do you know what mistletoe means?”

“No? Is that some other silly human tradition?”

“Yes. It means that if two people are caught under it they have to…” Beelzebub actually blushed. “They have to go and dance together.”

“Oh,” Gabriel nodded in understanding. “But I don’t dance.”

“Tough. It’s a rule. I guess I have to teach you!” Beelzebub dragged Gabriel to the dance floor.

And so the Prince of Hell tried to teach the Archangel some dance moves. The demon was actually worse at it than the angel, but then again they head six thousand more years of practice at being bad.

…….. 

Up in the Heavens, the God Almighty put Her feet up and smiled with the satisfaction of the job well done. She didn’t mean to scare Gabriel so much, but all’s well that ends well. And anyway, Gabriel deserved it. Even she was growing tired of his constant grumpy mood and her prayer inbox was filled with complaints about him. And since it was Christmas, the solution was obvious. She was always rather fond of good old Charlie.

Admittedly the vision of the future She chose to show Gabriel was the worst possibility with only the fifteen percent probability of occurring, but She was aiming for maximum impact and a proper lesson for her Archangel. 

Gabriel naturally won’t become all sunshine and daisies overnight but this was a hopeful first step. She will keep a careful eye on him and nudge him into a proper direction once in a while.

She looked into new possibilities that opened before Her and chose the most desirable one. There is no need to chance the failure of the Armageddon on Crowley displacing the Antichrist. If things remain on the newly established course what was happening downstairs right now was the first step in a slow reconciliation between her Children. In a couple of years when Lucifer gets accidentally knocked up, none of them will wish to fight each other anymore. 

Still, She had a feeling She forgot something. She looked through all the knowledge that ever existed that was available and groaned. In all that chaos She forgot to buy Jesus a birthday present.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas, guys. And don't let any pesky ghosts bother you.

**Author's Note:**

> I am not sure I will manage to finish this fic in timefor Christmas, but I am going to try my hardest.


End file.
